Motor vehicle steering systems typically include a steering shaft assembly comprised of two or more intermediate shaft portions that extend between the steering wheel and a steering unit connected to the front wheels. The shaft portions are typically hollow tubes, including an internal tube that inserts into an external tube. When the internal tube and external tube reach their properly inserted relationship, bolt holes in the tubes align with one another and a bolt is then inserted through the aligned holes. A nut is installed and tightened on the bolt to pinch the tubes together. It is known to provide a U-shaped anti-crush clip inside the internal tube so that tightening of nut and bolt cannot crush the tubes.
After the internal tube has begun its insertion into the external tube, and prior to the internal tube reaching its fully inserted position, there can exist the possibility that an assembly operator will err by installing the bolt through only the holes of the external tube, resulting in an unsuccessful connection between the tubes.
It would be desirable to provide an error-proofing device to prevent the installation of the bolt until the internal tube has been fully inserted into the external tube and reached the proper condition where the bolt holes of the internal tube and external tube are properly in alignment with one another in readiness to receive the bolt and accomplish a successful connection. It would also be desirable that the error-proofing device would also prevent the crushing of the tubes by over tightening of the nut onto the bolt.